Conspiracy theories have been around for sometime now. They are not an invention of new-age technology, such as the internet.

Amongst them is one still popular today in Pakistan, propogated by the Germans and Russians after World War I. It talked of a Jewish code ‘The protocols of the elders of Zion’ which supposedly outlined the Jewish plot to take over the world. In 1920, the protocols were published by a private commission and reviewed and discussed in major newspapers in the UK, including The Times of London. Going, so to speak, viral after that the documenta were discussed in various other publications, the most important being a series of four documents published and distributed by Henry Ford called The International Jew.

This conspiracy theory is still popular in various forms today. The internet has now become another source for such theories. It makes it easier to publiscise such theories. Recently, the internet has been on rage since vaccines provided by the Bill Gates and Melissa foundation to prevent polio caused paralysis in 47, 500 children, a fact not verifiable by any authentic source, in India. The fiasco caused by untested vaccines was easier to explain in the context of a grand design by Bill Gates to prevent population growth in the world. Gates did not escape unscathed since he has spoken regularly about population control. Someone somewhere over the internet put together the two agendas, giving birth to a new conspiracy theory.

The internet has increased our access to information, all types of information, which makes it easy to introduce new subtext to things. When Bill Gates talks about population control in the context of global warming you can either assume what he means through polio vaccine like the publisher of that small snippet suggests in the title or hear the entire speech yourself.

The internet has become a preptraror of such theories because it has made it easier to voice your opinions, which at times might be baseless. It makes it easier to find like-minded people who then further publiscise these theories.